NIPC News

Author   Chensiyuan   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert The scheme known as direct or public access by which members of the public may approach barristers without first instructing a solicitor or other intermediary came into being on 1 July 2004. The 20th anniversary of the start of that scheme has coincided with the Bar Council's launch of a new Direct Access Portal  and three YouTube videos entitled What is Direct Access? , What does a Direct Access Barrister do?  and How to use the Direct Access Portal?    I was one of the first barristers to qualify for direct access.  I received my first instructions through the scheme within days of finishing the course.   I have continued to receive a flow of direct access work ever since. The scheme implemented the recommendations of a report by a working party chaired by Sir Sydney Kentridge KC with the title  Competition in Professions.  The   re...

Jane Lambert There have been four important developments since I delivered IP Planning for Brexit   to an invited audience of specialist solicitors and patent and trade mark attorneys in chambers on 7 Dec 2016. First, the Bar Council published a set of papers that had been contributed by the specialist bar associations on the legal issues arising from Brexit and coordinated by Hugh Mercer QC's Brexit working group under the title  The Brexit Papers .   In a foreword, the Chair of the Bar explained that the purpose of those papers was "to help the Government evaluate a range of pressing public interest concerns arising from the UK’s decision to withdraw from the EU. These include such matters as cross-country co-operation for the speedy arrest of suspects, child protection across the EU, ensuring firms of all sizes can compete and trade profitably, managing changes to intellectual property law so that our creative industries can flourish, and maintaining curr...

Jane Lambert Revised 16 May 2017 Some years ago, the Intellectual Property Office published a leaflet entitled "Choosing the Right IP Adviser". It contained a lot of useful information and I recommended it. However, there was one section that needed improvement and that was the one headed "IP Barristers" on page 6: "IP barristers are likewise part of a wider profession and IP barristers give specialist advice in IP matters and conduct cases in Courts. The more experienced members of this group are generally able to provide a certain amount of business advice around IP too, although it is not normally their speciality." Introduction to an IP Barrister will normally be through a solicitor, a patent or trade mark attorney or an accountant." That information was incomplete, out of date and in some respects misleading.   That leaflet has now been replaced by the web page  Seeking intellectual property advice . What is a Barrister?...